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While microfinance models have been hugely successful on a global scale in providing the means for people to escape extreme poverty, they aren’t often used to finance payments for ecosystem services projects that offer many poverty alleviating benefits. Despite it being risky and costly, both sectors see potential in working together on a larger scale.

The Ecosystem Marketplace talks to Josh Donlan about the opportunities and challenges of leveraging microfinance approaches for environmental conservation. Check out the article here.

The overwhelming majority of the financial sector has yet to show interest in biodiversity conservation. In great contrast, impact investing for social good is an emerging asset class. Recent estimates forecast the value of potential investment opportunities to provide social services to the base of the economic pyramid at $4 billion to $1 trillion over the next decade. Investments in for- profit ventures that produce biodiversity co-benefits are a small fraction of this growing amount of private capital being mobilized to do “good.” The purpose of this report is twofold. First, we assess the current state of the impact investment sector with respect to its focus on the environment. We do so by assessing environmentally focused investment funds. We review their financial and legal structures, along with the foci of their investments. We also analyze the standards and ratings currently present in the sector, and identify broad levels of risk to those investment funds. Our main purpose is to provide snapshot of the impact investment space as it relates broadly to environmental conservation.